Amid charged exchanges between President Trump and Iran’s fragmented leadership over the regime's insistence that it retain its nuclear enrichment system, top experts on Iran’s atomic weapons program support the commander in chief’s ironclad goal to dissolve it.

One of the main sticking points during the intense talks between Tehran and Washington centers on Iran’s claim that the rogue regime has a right to enrich and possess weapons-grade uranium, the material required to build an atomic bomb. 

The showdown over enriched uranium might be the core deal-breaker issue when and if the next round of talks to reach a nuclear agreement goes ahead in Pakistan.

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Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baqaei, vehemently rejected Trump’s demand last week on state-controlled television. 

"Iran’s enriched uranium is not going to be transferred anywhere under any circumstances," Baqaei declared.

Trump claimed Iran had agreed to "give us back the nuclear dust that’s way underground." The President terms Iran’s 440 kilograms of enriched uranium as "nuclear dust" after sustained U.S. military strikes on Iranian sites that store the country’s stockpile of uranium.

"The United States should insist on a permanent ban of Iranian enrichment and its full dismantlement in negotiations. Iran retaining any enrichment infrastructure in anticipation of the end of a moratorium would allow it to cheat as soon as Trump leaves office and resume its path to nuclear weapons," Andrea Stricker, deputy director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' nonproliferation program, told Fox News Digital.

Jonathan Ruhe, fellow for American strategy at JINSA, echoed Stricker on the importance of abolishing the Iranian enrichment program. He told Fox News Digital, "An acceptable deal would have to embody many of Trump’s stated redlines from his first administration, and from the run-up to last summer’s 12-Day War. 

"This means permanent bans on enrichment, reprocessing and weaponization capability and, equally importantly, full verification of Iran’s compliance with these strictures."

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President Trump withdrew from President Obama’s widely criticized nuclear deal with Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2018. 

"In theory, the so-called ‘Iran deal’ was supposed to protect the United States and our allies from the lunacy of an Iranian nuclear bomb, a weapon that will only endanger the survival of the Iranian regime," Trump said at the time. "In fact, the deal allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium and, over time, reach the brink of a nuclear breakout."

Ruhe said, "The JCPOA failed to ensure IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] inspectors could monitor, and account for, the entirety of Iran’s program and its compliance with the deal. This problem has worsened significantly in the decade since, as Iran systematically stonewalled inspectors.

"Iran’s negotiators always drag out talks and avoid giving clear answers. They still think time is on their side, with their blockade hurting the global economy and their missile arsenals being dug out and prepared for renewed conflict. Trump should insist on a definitive response from Tehran and be ready for renewed operations.

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"As a cautionary tale: The Obama team first entered nuclear talks with stringent redlines, but then they let Iran call their bluffs, ignore their deadlines and wear down their demands until we ended up with the JCPOA," Ruhe said.

Iran is a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that obligates it not to enrich uranium for military purposes. However, U.S. and European intelligence reports have documented Iran’s illicit proliferation activities.

Ruhe said, "This regime cynically wants it both ways: They insist the NPT gives the ‘right’ to peaceful enrichment, yet they flout the treaty’s safeguards. By claiming this ‘right,’ they try to make certain core issues non-negotiable. By this logic, they should get to retain enrichment capacity. So, the questions then become how much and what the U.S. has to give in return for this supposed sacrifice by Iran.

"As the Non-Proliferation Treaty’s name indicates, it’s an agreement to prevent proliferation, not to promote nuclear development."

Stricker said Rafael Grossi, the head of the IAEA, recently said, "It’s fiction that the NPT specifically mentions ‘enrichment’ in its peaceful uses clause. Moreover, the prevailing legal demand from the U.N. Security Council is that Iran stop enriching and come back into compliance with its nonproliferation obligations. 

For nearly 25 years, the IAEA has been unable to conclude that all of Iran’s nuclear material and activities are devoted to peaceful uses."

She added that "Iran’s enrichment program began through illicit procurements and covert facilities, under a nuclear weapons program that planned to use enriched uranium as fuel. Iran was clearly stockpiling material for an apparent nuclear weapons breakout."

U.K. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer faces a "crimes against humanity" complaint at the United Nations over the treatment of the Chagossian people as tensions rise after an Iranian missile attempt targeting Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

Starmer, who is named in the filling, has been reported specifically over the removal of four people who returned to the island in a complaint filed by the attorney general for the Chagossian government.

James Tumbridge's filing also comes as the exiled leadership stressed the importance of strong ties with the United States, telling Fox News Digital that Washington is a "brother in arms for global security."

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On March 20, Iran launched two ballistic missiles toward Diego Garcia from more than 2,300 miles away, missing the target but underscoring the base’s strategic importance.

Chagossian leaders have since backed a continued U.S. presence, with First Minister Misley Mandarin saying they want to "uphold the 1966 agreement and consider the U.S. as a brother in arms for global security."

The 1966 agreement allowed the U.S. to use Diego Garcia for defense purposes, initially for 50 years.

"The desire of the Chagossian government is to have a positive relationship with the U.S. and an ongoing presence on Diego Garcia of the U.S. military," Tumbridge also told Fox News Digital.

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Meanwhile, Tumbridge’s U.N. submission claims U.K. actions risk the "forced depopulation" of the Chagos Islands.

Expulsions began in 1968, when about 2,000 residents were removed, culminating in 1973, and in February the U.K. issued new removal orders to four Chagossians who had returned to the islands.

The filing calls the situation "forced displacement" that could constitute "a crime against humanity by forced depopulation of a territory."

It warns the British government of a "fresh crime now" that could complete a decades-long erasure of the Indigenous population, stating, "The removal of these four persons would result in the total physical erasure of the Chagossian people," potentially "amounting to ethnic cleansing."

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"The BIOT commissioner accepted that the Chagossians were wronged in the past," Tumbridge said Wednesday.

"How can the U.K. prime minister, who claims to value the rule of law and human rights, not want to right that wrong and let the people return to their islands?"

The filing also comes as the U.K. considers transferring sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

This followed a 2019 International Court of Justice opinion, while preserving the Diego Garcia base under a 99-year lease.

President Donald Trump criticized the proposed handover, and the U.K. has since paused legislation to formalize the deal, with ministers saying it has become "impossible to agree at a political level."

The legislation was expected to be included in the King’s speech outlining the next parliamentary session’s agenda.

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A UK government spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the Diego Garcia military base is "crucial to the security of the UK and our key allies, and to keeping the British people safe. 

"There are ongoing legal proceedings before the BIOT courts. Various UK and international courts have found that there is no right of abode on the Archipelago," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Responding to the statement, Tumbridge claimed Starmer's government was "misleading" people and warned a "serious fight" is on the horizon.

"Sadly, the British Government is misleading people. No court anywhere has ever found ‘that there is no right of abode on the Archipelago.’ Tony Blair’s Government took away the right of abode and passed attempts to quash that law in court failed, until the Supreme Court of the BIOT ruled on March 31st and quashed it," he said.